ii6 THE BOOK OF HERBS 



Ross and Favyn give most curious accounts of the Order 

 " De la Sainte Magdalaine." This was instituted by a 

 Noble Gentleman of France, who is alternately called 

 John Chesnil or Sieur de la Chapronaye, " Out of a 

 godly Zeal to reclaim the French from their Quarrels, 

 Duels and other sins. . . . The Cross of the Order had 

 at three ends, three Flowers-de-Luce ; the Cross is beset 

 with Palms to shew this Order was instituted to en- 

 courage Voyages to the Holy Land, within the Palms 

 are Sunbeams and four Flowers-de-Luce to shew the glory 

 of the French Nation." They had a house allotted them 

 near Paris, " wherein were ordinarily five hundred 

 Knights, bound to stay there during two years' proba- 

 tion. . . . The Knights that live abroad shall meet 

 every year at their house called the lodging Royal on 

 Mary Magdalene's Festival Day." The Lay Brothers 

 were to be of good family ; the Vallets des Chevaliers, 

 of " honestes Families i Artisans et Mecaniques" Their 

 garb was carefully ordered, and they were to take the 

 same vows as their master. Other elaborate arrange- 

 ments were made — "But this Order, as it began, so it 

 ended in the person of Chesnil." One's breath is taken 

 away, as when, in a dream, one falls and falls to immense 

 depths and awakes with a sudden shock ! Francis, 

 Duke of Bretaigne, created the Order of Bretaigne : 

 " This Order consisteth of five and twenty Knights of 

 the Ears of Corn, so called to signifie that Princes should 

 be careful to preserve Husbandry." Favyn, however, 

 finds a much more romantic origin for the name, and tells 

 a long story of a dispute among the gods as to the thing 

 most essential to " les Humains." After lengthy argu- 

 ment, " de sorte que Jupiter toujours favorisant les 

 Dames," he declared victory to rest with Ceres, to whose 

 verdict that of Minerva was joined (Minerva had pleaded 

 the Ox), and so they both triumphed over the others. 

 In Amsterdam, a literary guild was once named after 



